I’m a very new expat, only a few months living here in Salta, so for me, much of my day entails getting used to how things work. It’s a lot of little details.
I get up in the morning, get my daughter Lila ready for school. She wears a uniform, so that makes it much easier. No choices of clothing to worry about. The city has been doing work on our street lately, so often we wake up to an apartment — a temporary one until we find a more permanent place to live – without electricity or water.
Today, my internet isn’t working, so I’ll have to pack up my stuff soon and find a café with Wifi. They’re lovely. Lots of tables, plenty of places to plug in, coffee always comes with a cookie and glass of water. This is easy.
Other things, not so much. Going to the gym. Supermarket. Finding a house or apartment to rent. Even the smell of the cleaner in the bathroom is different. Speaking Spanish, too, I’m usually a sentence or two behind in comprehension. While I enjoy the feeling of strange, especially when traveling, it can be exhausting on a day to day basis. I often feel like I’m moving underwater.
By lunchtime, I’ll stop work when Lila comes home for lunch and siesta. It’s been surprisingly difficult getting used to this. You’d think a relaxing lunch with the family and then a nap would be enjoyable, and one day I hope it will be. Mostly, though, I find it frustrating because I can’t get anything done.
No one rushes here for anything. Again, a really lovely thing, in theory, but when you come from a get-it, buy-it, do-it-now culture, it’s hard to slow down.
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Siesta is frustrating! I have spent a couple of months in siesta countries this year and still haven’t gotten the hang of it. And in ARgentina, it’s so early that you can’t even use that time to prepare dinner (which is of course still, what, 6 hours later?).
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Wow, I had no idea Salta was so green!
Happy to be the first to report that, yes, I’ve got the siesta rhythm down.
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Siestas are marvellous. I could never do it in Britain, but in Spain when you have to get up stupidly early to go to work and have dinner really late (my ex was Argentinean and rarely ate before 11pm) , it’s the only way to survive. Now I can’t live without them.
Close the blinds, pop in the earplugs and set the alarm so you can sleep for 20 or 30 minutes. Any more and you’ll wake up feeling groggy.
In Barcelona, when I have an hour at home between classes, I got it down to 20 minutes to cook, 20 minutes to eat and wash up, 10 minute siesta and 10 minutes to get ready for work again. Felt like a new woman after that.
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